OPENING AND WELCOME REMARKS:

GAUTENG PREMIER DAVID MAKHURA ON THE OCASSION OF THE 2014 GAUTENG SOCIAL COHESION SUMMIT AT THE BIRCHWOOD CONFERENCE CENTRE

22 AUGUST 2014

Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa,

Mr Cyril Ramaphosa;

MEC for Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation, Molebatsi Bopape;

Members of the Gauteng Executive Council;

Deputy Speaker of the GPL, Comrade Uhuru Moiloa;

Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Sports, Arts, Culture and Receation in the GPL;

Execuitve Mayors, Speakers, MMCs and Cllrs;

Representatives of civil society organisations;

Leaders of Political Parties;

Distinguished Delegates;

Allow me to extend a warm welcome to all of you, fellow citizens of our democratic nation to the 2014 Provincial Summit on Social Cohesion. A particularly special welcome to our Deputy President.

We meet during the Women's Month, which marks the 60th anniversary of the Women's Charter. Women's Rights are fundamental human rights enshrined in our Constitution. Malibongwe igama lamakhosikazi!

Following the 2012 National Social Cohesion Summit, we come together in this provincial summit to continue the dialogue and discourse on how to galvanise all sectors of society around the vision and programme of building a caring and inclusive society based on humanity, equality, solidarity, diversity and tolerance.

Distinguished delegates, we come together at this provincial summit to also celebrate the tremendous progress we have made as a country over 20 years, towards constructing a National Democratic Society.

Whilst we know that the road ahead is still a long and arduous one, we are inspired by the dream of our forebears - the drafters of the Freedom Charter - who cherished the ideal that South Africa belongs to all its people who live in brotherhood and sisterhood, enjoying equal human rights and opportunities regardless of colour, class, gender or religion.

The ideals and vision of the Freedom Charter are encapsulated in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa and the National Development Plan.

Social cohesion is one of the fundamental tasks that arise from our quest for a society based on democratic values, social justice, solidarity and human rights for all.

Over the past twenty years, we have taken significant steps to build enduring institutions that underpin our constitutional democracy in line with the ideals of our forebears. We have just emerged from the 5th peaceful democratic elections in which all our people freely decide who must govern them.

We must not take peaceful, free and fair elections for granted. Lest we forget the supreme sacrifices that were made to bring freedom and democracy in our land.

Honourable Deputy President, we are very proud of the tremendous strides made by our country in addressing the basic needs of the overwhelming majority of South Africans who endured centuries of racial oppression, socio-economic exclusion and super-exploitation.

Today, millions of our people have unprecedented levels of access to education, healthcare, housing, water, modern energy and other life-supporting services and infrastructure that have restored their dignity.

As our President likes to say, we have a good story to tell because South Africa is a much better place than it was before 1994.

And yet, we all agree that the challenges that still face our country are immense. Millions of our people remain trapped in poverty, inequality and unemployment. Blacks, women and youth carry a disproportionate burden of the historical injustice of social and economic exclusion and the associated social pathologies such as crime and corruption plague our emerging democratic nation. Non-racialism remains an elusive dream.

I would like to highlight the results of the most recent study of the Quality of Life Survey III published by the Gauteng City Region Observatory, which have a bearing on this Summit:

1. Increased levels of violent crime and social pathologies - violence against women, children and the elderly and drugs - undermining nation-building and social cohesion.

2. Corruption and citizen alienation growing concerns - corruption and bad treatment of citizens by public servants contribute to the high level of trust deficit between government and citizens.

3. Racial attitudes are hardening and there is growing mistrust among blacks and whites - non-racialism is becoming an elusive dream. Blacks and whites feel they can never trust each other.

4. There is an increasing negative sentiment against foreign nationals across race and class.

 This Social Cohesion Summit is called upon to deliberate on and develop a programme to address all the socio-economic ills plaguing our province.

One thing we know is that as a people we are very resilient. The more challenges we face, the more determined we become to triumph. Together, we shall overcome.

We remain unshaken in our resolve to build Gauteng into a province beacon of an equal, just and inclusive society envisioned in the Freedom Charter and the NDP.

Ours must be a truly integrated, inclusive and sustainable City Region wherein all South Africans enjoy human rights and care for each other as human beings, regardless of race, class, gender and religion. We must be our brothers and sisters' keepers.

We must forge ahead with nation-building and a common citizenship among our people. When we celebrate the achievements of our democracy, lets us do so together as a people.

When we mourn those who die in the hands of vicious criminals and resolve to wage the war against crime let us do so together as fellow compatriots.

When we decide to tackle the triple challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment let's do so as a fellow country men and women.

When we fight the scourge of violence perpetrated against women, children and the elderly in our communities, let's do so as fellow combatant who are united behind a vision of building safe, secure and sustainable communities that are safe havens for the most vulnerable.

When we fight corruption and fraud, let us also do so as fellow patriots who share a dream of building a clean and accountable government that deploys public resources to assist the most vulnerable in society and enable all citizens to live productive and meaningful.

This Social Cohesion Summit takes place in the context of the call by President Jacob Zuma to pursue a radical socio-economic transformation in this new phase of our transition.

The Gauteng Government a 10-pillar programme of action to radically transform, modernise and re-industrialise the province in line with the National Development Plan.

This 10-pillar programme constitutes the platform around which we seek to mobilise and unite broad sections of our people in the province to take active part in the process of radical socio-economic transformation.

Among other things, we talk about the renewal of our townships and the revitalisation of the township economy as part of turning our townships into thriving centres of educational, cultural, intellectual, social and economic excellence.

Social cohesion must tackle the material foundations of centuries of systemic and systematic deprivation, dispossession, exclusion and marginalisation of blacks and women. Social cohesion must help to redress the imbalances of the past in all their social, psychological, economic and spatial manifestations.

Social Cohesion is a critically important task during this new radical phase of our transition to a national democratic society. We need your ideas on how we are going to respond to President Zuma's call for radical socio-economic transformation.

As we work together to mend our society from scars of centuries of colonialism and apartheid. As we work together to heal our nation from the pain and divisions of our past, we must face the future with confidence.

We can make poverty, hunger, illiteracy, diseases and crime history if we mobilise all the resources of our nation and unleash the creative and positive energy of everyone in our society around radical socio-economic transformation.

Honourable Deputy President, the Gauteng provincial government I have the honour to lead is ready to work with national government, municipalities and leaders of civil society are to join the struggle for radical socio-economic transformation.

We are ready to be our brother and sister's keeper! We are ready to build a non-racial, non-sexist society. We are ready to build an inclusive and caring society. We shall not turn a blind eye when our neighbours are hungry. We shall not close our ears when our neighbours cry for help during the greatest hour of need.

I wish you fruitful deliberations and hope the resolutions of the Summit will enrich our programme for radical transformation, modernisation and re-industrialisation of our province, our country and our continent.

Let us all move our country and our province forward!

I THANK YOU!

Issued by the Gauteng Office of the Premier August 22 2014

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter